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I don’t hate you. When?
My first guess was that she’d suggest tomorrow. Maybe after work. Important or not, it was late enough in the evening that if we spoke now, there was little chance of us not ending up in bed.
Even if she told me she was using me, it was probably going to happen. I wasn’t proud of it, but I was honest. At least about that. I wanted her, and even going two days without having her felt like an unbearably long time.
Her answer came swiftly.
Tonight. Now. If you can. I know you’re with Laurie, but your dad is coming to relieve you. I think. Or if he doesn’t, we can hang there. I can help.
Joint babysitting my niece wasn’t what I had in mind. I wasn’t insistent on sex happening, since Sage was apt to need to say any-damn-thing. But if we spent the night watching Laurie, it was most likely guaranteed not to.
After having to see Trolls again, I deserved for it to at least be an option on the table.
I tapped out a response.
My dad is probably on his way, as you said. I’ll meet you in an hour? If something comes up, I’ll text.
Meet me where?
I debated for a moment before replying.
The cabin. It’s still set up for V-day.
Yes, that was me, taking jabs where I could. Another thing I wasn’t proud of, but when a guy gets labeled as a convenient penis, well, shit happens.
She didn’t take long to answer.
Ok. I’ll be @ the cabin in 1 hr. Text if James doesn’t show.
I blinked. Hmm. Guess she really was chummy with my father. I wasn’t entirely sure he even allowed Ally to call him James. If he did, it was a recent development.
“Unca Ollie, can I see my brother again?” Laurie came over to me and pressed her little hands on my knees, giving me her most imploring expression.
“Sure thing.” I flicked away Sage’s text and pulled up the one Seth had sent with the baby’s picture.
My new nephew was so small. So easy to break. I’d held Laurie shortly after her birth and I’d been struck by the same thing then. I wondered if Seth ever got freaked out. He didn’t seem to, but then again, I hoped I wasn’t obvious about my thoughts on the subject either.
When Laurie was born, I’d been all t
oo eager to hand her back to her parents. She was cute and all, and I’d loved her before she was born, but I hadn’t had any interest in children. Not even peripherally.
Over the past five years, things had changed. I’d changed. Not necessarily to the point where I was eager to procreate, but the idea wasn’t as abhorrent as it once was. I’d also developed some affinity for children. My niece in particular, but I had to hope she wasn’t an isolated case. My new nephew would be a secondary test. If that affinity extended to him as well, perhaps one day I might even consider having my own.
One. Possibly two.
Probably one was enough.
But then two meant they’d have a sibling, and no one liked being an only child. That had been Seth’s original reasoning for his proposal for Ally, though how he’d gone from hey, need a sibling, to hey, need an entire football team, I did not know.
“Unca Ollie, picture!” Laurie craned her neck to see my phone, and I realized I’d been lost in a world of my own making.
One where I was thinking about having children, God help me.
This was all Seth’s fault. Damn him. If he’d set off some internal twin alarm clock with his incessant reproducing, I was going to kick his ass.
“Here you go. Sorry.” I turned the phone toward her and she grabbed it, pulling the screen close to her face so she could examine every detail.
“He no look like me,” she said sadly.
